


The Ayako Line: A Cardcaptors (Specifically Cardcaptors, not Cardcaptor Sakura) AU

by hakushaku_xiaolang



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura, Digimon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Tokyo (City), Yamanote Line
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-03-15 04:32:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hakushaku_xiaolang/pseuds/hakushaku_xiaolang
Summary: In Central Tokyo, there are more magical sets of cards than are dreamt of in your philosophy. This is the story of one such Cardcaptor, Yamanote Ayako, and her magical realms.





	1. Prologue

It must have been Tuesday, because Yamanote Ayako (Stephanie Amtrak in the Dub) never could get the hang of Tuesdays. Everything had been coming up apples and mangos since she’d woken up. Her magic staff hadn’t appeared when she’d invoked it, her familiar left a note that they’d gone on vacation to Okinawa, and her parents were having sex in the kitchen. She wasn’t even able to get a hearty breakfast without coitus interruptus-ing some middle-aged Japanese people. Such bad luck. Oh well, maybe her walk to school would liven her spirits. And maybe she’d be able to find that damnable magic staff, whereever it’d wandered off to.

On the way to the train station she came across her classmate, secret boyfriend, and even secreter Maho Shōnen (Magical Lad in the Dub) Ren’ai Junjo (Jimmy Love in the Dub). Junjo-kun was tall, jittery, and lanky. Like he was drawn by Clamp and animated by Trigger. But since this isn’t an anime, that sort of description is meaningless, isn’t it? He had brown, shimmery hair. Like the sort of thing you’d see on a Shoujo Dating Sim. He wore his necktie slightly loose, but not loose enough to violate the school’s dress code. Gakuen Kōkyū Academy (Awesome High School in the Dub) was a school where only the elite could attend. The rich, the powerful, the skilled. Or, in Ayako and Junjo’s cases, those who had used their magical powers to cheat on entrance exams in order to be accepted to a school way above their skill level. Thankfully, they helped each other cheat on tests so that they could avoid getting kicked out. 

All of that aside, they were a happy couple. Content in their lies, their place in society, and their awkward teenage relationship. Once, in a lonely alley between a ramen shop and a love hotel, Junjo had held Ayako’s hand for the briefest of moments. Such scandal! She had blushed for days afterwards and kept her parents awake that night with her embarrassed Phwee~ noises.

“G’morning Yamanote-san,” Junjo said, eloquence dripping off his lips like syrup dripping off a tall stack of Japanese-style pancakes, “how are you today?”

“I’m fine,” Ayako replied happily, “though I’ve told you many times to call me Ayako.”

“Oh, Ayako-chan. Hello!” Junjo exclaimed, meeting Ayako’s eyes, “I’m sorry. I was saying good morning to the looping train line we’re about to get on before I noticed you.”

“Curse this ridiculous name of mine,” Ayako said under her breath before turning back to Junjo. 

“I’m glad to be able to spend some time being no closer than 30 centimeters to you, Ayako-chan,” Junjo crooned, his Maho Shōnen lyrical magic infusing his voice to hide his words from the nearby public.

“And I’m so happy to be able to stand within a socially acceptable distance of you, Junjo-kun,” Ayako replied.

A few moments later, their train arrived. Precisely on time, as all things do here in Japan. They boarded the car and parted ways. Who knows what sort of Gossiping Garurumon might be on the train with them. No sense in adding to the not-insubstantial pile or rumors about them. 

“I sure hope we don’t have to play soccer against Tomoeda High School again this season,” another student in a Gakuen Kōkyū Academy uniform said, their features obscured by the fact that they were a tertiary character at best and therefore the animators couldn’t be bothered, “that new striker they had last year beat us handily.”

“I know,” one of their fellow tertiary characters agreed, “that Li kid was the bee’s knees.”

“Is that a thing we say here, in Japan?” the first tertiary character asked incredulously.

“I guess? I dunno, Worried Student, I think you’re fixated on the minutiae of our conversation and not the central point,” the second interjected.

“You’re probably right, Capable Student,” the first acquiesced, “you’re probably right.”

Ayako stood near the doors, as she always did, so that she could be the first one to rush off the train and toward the gates of Gakuen Kōkyū Academy. Every day was a new adventure, even one as lopsided and peculiar as today’s had been.

Minutes passed quickly, much like the tall buildings passing rapidly past the train car. The fanciful Tokyo skyline stood as a testament to Japanese industriousness and economic superiority, like something out of an Anime. But better, because this was real life. Real life with Magic. Before she knew it, the train pulled into the Gakuen Kōkyū Academy station. Ayako bounded out, putting a bit of Maho Shoujo (Magical Gal in the Dub) power into her steps. She was so excited to start this new day that her teeth were chattering, like they had been on her last school trip to the summit of Mount Fuji-san. 

All that evaporated when she saw the banners hanging from the school’s archway. 

“Under New Management” and “Welcome to American Education Academy High School!”.


	2. Continue-log

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> American Education Academy High School? What hot fresh sorcery is this?! How will Ayako and Junjo survive such an unforgiving educational situation? A certain character makes her first appearance.

"Junjo-kun," Ayako wondered aloud, "what happened to our school?"

"I don't know, my secret love," he replied, sensuality infusing each and every kanji of his sentence. 

"Phwee~," Ayako phwee'd.

The two stood, awestruck, in front of the gathering throng of stereotypical Japanese middle-school students. Several tertiary and possibly yet-to-be-introduced secondary characters milled about, asking each other incredulous questions. 

"What the hecking heck does that sign say," a tertiary character with a cowlick asked a nearby similarly nondescript person, "I can't read Euro Runes."

"I think it says something about America. And a capybara? I dunno, I only got a 91 in English last year," the similarly nondescript person replied.

"You're both simple idiots," a young girl, whose face was dramatically occluded by shadow, interjected, "but I'm too rich and popular to bother telling you what it actually says."

She glided away, her feet making naught a sound on the cobblestones.

"Who the hecking heck was that," Cowlick Student asked no one in particular.

Meanwhile, the protagonist and her sometimes boyfriend continued to be awestruck by the change in ownership of this otherwise public school. Moments passed, until a sharp tone rung out of the hastily constructed stage. Standing atop it was a man. A man made of meat and pressed awkwardly into a normal person-sized suit.

"Ha'jimmy muh'shitty, estudiantes nee'hong'oh," the large man bellowed, "wuh'tashee'wuh Harold Bainbridge. Bienvenidos a American Education Academy High School [Magical Japanese High School For Americans In America High School in the dub]."

The crowd was so silent, that if you didn't know better, you'd have assumed they were a bunch of Japanese middle-school students attending a school assembly. 

"I'm sure you're all distressed by this change in ownership of an otherwise public school," Principle Bainbridge [Principal Ippudo Ramen in the dub] continued, "but I assure you that everything I did to acquire this school was entirely legal and had nothing to do with my need to be the tallest person in my vicinity at all times."

Well, Ayako thought to herself, he is pretty tall. 

"The staff and I hope you'll all have a wonderful year," Bainbridge-kantoku assuaged, "but I caution you that this school has a very puritanical view of relationships between students."

He paused, allowing the students to mutter to each other for several seconds.

"No students may engage in any type of romantic or sexual relationship while they attend this school," the principal cautioned, "anyone found to be in such a relationship with another student, teacher, member of the janitorial staff, or member of the general public will be summarily expelled."

Ayako's heart dropped faster than the toast from a budding Maho Shoujo's mouth as she raced out the door to her first day of school on her super cool roller blades.

"Junjo-romantica, my love," Ayako professed, "how will we survive without our love?"

"Fear not, my little orphan," Junjo mused, "our magic will conceal our love from these heartless authority figures."

"Also," Principal Bainbridge interjected, most inopportunely, "we all know that magic isn't real, right? But, just for the sake of argument, let's say that it was totally real and that at least two Maho Shoujos went to this school. Maybe even a Maho Shōnen, if my Maho Senses still work after all these years in education. Let's pretend it's real. Magic is banned. No magic in my school, even though you kids all know it's super fake and not at all a real thing that could prove to be my undoing."

The student again filled the space with their confused muttering. 

"The final new rule, then I shall let you toddle off to class is," Bainbridge paused for dramatic effect, "all the vending machines on campus are free~!"

A polite, restrained cheer filled the air. 

"They're all under his spell," Junjo pointed out, worriedly.

"No," Ayako corrected, "they're just dumb."

The two Maho-types exchanged furtive, worried glances on their way in to school. Junjo made sure to stand at least 50 centimeters away from Ayako, lest they arouse suspicion. 

Thus began the first day at their new school.


End file.
